The subject matter of the invention is a washing method, especially a method for determining and generating a certain state of a washing program in a dishwasher and a dishwasher for implementing this method.
In conventional dishwashers whilst a washing program is running, the respective state of the washing is communicated to the user, e.g. by means of a time-remaining display which indicates the time remaining before the end of the washing program. This is also carried out during the partial drying section of the program. By means of this time remaining of the washing program which is usually indicated in a display on the front, the user who has sufficient experience with the particular dishwasher, can reliably estimate when the partial drying section of the program begins in the particular washing program, i.e., the user can estimate when the partial rinsing section of the program has ended and if necessary, heating of the atmosphere in the washing container for the purpose of drying the washed items begins.
In conventional dishwashers, during so-called “adding on” it is possible to briefly interrupt the washing program by opening the dishwasher to receive crockery in a washing program which has already begun. After closing the dishwasher door, the washing program is usually continued, i.e. a program controller saves the state existing at the time of opening the dishwasher door and after closing the dishwasher door, goes on from precisely this time to continue the selected washing program.
However, this usual interruption regulation for the washing program is disadvantageous for an interruption during the partial drying section of the program since an interruption of the washing program during the partial drying section of the program by the user is not used to add items for washing but to completely interrupt the partial drying section of the program before the time remaining elapses and either to remove the cleaned items immediately from the dishwasher or to speed up the drying process with the dishwasher door open.
If, following such a premature interruption of the partial drying section of the program, the dishwasher which has meanwhile been emptied, is again loaded with dirty items and the washing program started, the program controller does not recognise that a new washing program is to be started but merely recognises, as a result of the state stored in the program controller, that a program interruption has been made during the partial drying section of the program. After activating the program start, a countdown of the time remaining would begin and after this time remaining has ended, the dishwasher would be in a readiness state but would not start the desired washing program. For example, if the partial drying section of the program is ended 6 minutes before its actual completion by opening the dishwasher door, after activating the next program start a time remaining of 6 minutes must elapse before the user could activate the new washing program. The time delay and the associated double burden for the user of having to wait for a certain time remaining after a first activation of the washing program to re-activate the dishwasher has proved disadvantageous.